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Wednesday, September 28, 2005
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LADNER, ACT IV: Improper Quotation Of Second-Rate Poems Yeah, I know I said I’d get to that other university-related stuff, but I haven’t been able to. Our long ladner nightmare is not over, and its latest development is particularly horrifying to the likes of UD. For now, as various actors wax philosophical about the situation at American University, we enter the era of poor poetry poorly cited. "If we [trustees] follow the lead of the deans who have shown no confidence in Ladner, and if Ben realizes that whatever he thinks about himself, other people differ, he should go gently into the good night," said trustee Paul M. Wolff, a lawyer. Liking Dylan Thomas past the age of eighteen or so is already a bad sign, if you ask UD. Misquoting his vile villanelle (“…go gentle into that good night”) compounds the offense. UD is fine with the fact that Wolff has basically, by quoting Thomas, asked Ladner to die -- that’s the sort of embarrassing rhetorical outcome she enjoys. But of all the poets Wolff might have turned to…! Get ready for a retired real estate developer on the board to tell a Washington Post reporter “The center cannot hold. Mere chaos is loosed upon the campus.” |